Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on Sunday 6th November 2016

Eleven of us met in the NT car park by the Wizard Inn and after meeting Chris, the Area Manager. We walked across the fields to Hill Top Farm while Chris took our tools in the Land Rover and, when we arrived, Chris showed what we were to be doing.
This hedge had not been laid before and, although some work had been done prior to our visit to tidy it up by removing some of the side branches and 'breaking in' at different points so that a number of us could hedgelay along the length, it was still a very tricky hedge to work with.
Matt, one of our most experienced hedgelayers said it was the most difficult he'd come across, but he rose to the challenge and showed others how best to do it, refreshing some peoples skills and explaining to a new volunteer that came, how best to tackle it.

Others of us set a fire and started burning the branches that had already been cut then, once this had been done, burnt what was being cut on the day.

Others of us tried to remove the old rabbit guards that were put in originally when the hedge was planted, to keep the rabbits from nibbling the bark. Unfortunately some parts of the hedge had grown into and around the rabbit guards, making it very difficult to remove some of them.
It was a bitterly cold day and we even had rain, but we kept positive and got a tremendous amount done. We've only just started on this particular hedge so are expecting to be working on it quite a bit in the forthcoming months.

Photo's by Adrian.